Infinitely Losing My Edge
Yeah, I'm losing my edge.
I'm losing my edge.
The kids are coming up from behind.
I'm losing my edge.
I'm losing my edge to the kids from Benin and from Stockholm.
But I was there.
I was there in 1973.
I was there at the first Television show in New York.
I'm losing my edge.
I'm losing my edge to the kids whose footsteps I hear when they get on the decks.
I'm losing my edge to the internet seekers who can tell me every member of every good group from 1963 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Mexico City and Tokyo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Milan kids in little jackets and borrowed nostalgia for the unremembered nineties.
I'm losing my edge.
I'm losing my edge.
I can hear the footsteps every night on the decks.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971 at the first Selda practice in a loft in Istanbul.
I was working on the mellotron sounds with much patience.
I was there when David Bowie started up his first band.
I told him, "Don't do it that way. You'll never make a dime."
I was there.
I was the first guy playing Average White Band to the dance kids.
I played it at the 40 Watt.
Everybody thought I was crazy.
We all know.
I was there.
I was there.
I've never been wrong.
But I'm losing my edge to better-looking people with better ideas and more talent.
And they're actually really, really nice.
I'm losing my edge.
I heard you have a compilation of every good song ever done by anybody.
Every great song by Cal Tjader. All the underground hits.
All Marcia Griffiths tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Absolute Body Control record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal funk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a rhodes and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Bill Near record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a mellotron.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a chamberlin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Grauzone,
Davy DMX,
New Order,
Sight & Sound,
Gong,
Leonard Cohen,
Negative Approach,
Electric Prunes,
The United States of America,
Alton Ellis,
Barbara Tucker,
Easy Going,
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
Dawn Penn,
Urselle,
The New Christs,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Average White Band,
Boredoms,
DJ Sneak,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
The Smiths,
Pierre Henry,
Black Flag,
Althea and Donna,
Arcadia,
Patti Smith,
Rites of Spring,
Yellowson,
Eric B and Rakim,
K-Klass,
The Index,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Angry Samoans,
The Residents,
Fat Boys,
Gang Green,
Icehouse,
Ronnie Foster,
Marshall Jefferson,
A Flock of Seagulls,
The Trojans,
Robert Wyatt,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Boogie Down Productions,
Heaven 17,
Cheater Slicks,
Ponytail,
Crooked Eye,
The Knickerbockers,
Rhythm & Sound,
Sticky Fingaz feat. Raekwon,
Massinfluence,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Drive Like Jehu,
Junior Murvin,
Echospace,
Mo-Dettes,
The Divine Comedy,
Tres Demented,
ABC, ABC, ABC, ABC.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.